Silent Hearth - Free
Another poem for you to take and use as you wish. This one is personal and although it holds meaning to me, it will never reach the intended recipient so its best shared here. Hope someone finds something useful to use.
No copyright or acknowledgement required.
In shadows deep, where silence weaves its woeful wraith-like spell,
Lies the heart that once beat fervent ‘neath the love’s resounding bell.
These halls, now hushed and hollowed, echo with a ghostly call—
The laughter and the footsteps, in time’s cruel march, did fall.
Oh, tender were the moments, the mornings bright with song,
When cherubic faces beaming, to this beating heart belonged.
Yet season’s shift brought parting tides that pulled our souls apart,
And left a barren furrow deep within a father’s heart.
Once cradled in these withered arms, they blossomed day by day,
Now distant as the stars that gleam yet light-years far away.
Their visages in framed repose smile from a dusty shelf,
Unwitting of the chasm wide, I navigate by self.
Whispers of their essence linger like perfume in the air,
A haunting hint of happiness that fate no more shall spare.
In dreams I chase their fleeting forms across an endless field—
Awake to find just shadows cast, no solace do they yield.
The hearth where flames of kinship roared is cold and comfortless,
The embers of connection dimmed by time’s remorseless press.
What cruel jest has life contrived to rend my purpose so?
To seed and tend a garden fair whose blooms I’ll never know.
Forsaken by the flesh and blood for whom I wore my years,
My soul adrift upon an ocean brimming with my tears.
Do they recall the lullabies, the stories every night,
Or am I but a waning wisp within their minds’ twilight?
Their lives cascade beyond my reach, a river rushing wild,
While I’m ensnared in memory’s grasp—the shadow of a child.
This solitude envelops me as dusk does to the day,
An endless eclipse casting gloom where once was bright array.
No greater pain than love ignored can pierce a parent’s chest,
To be an afterthought at best—a relic laid to rest.
In silent screams my spirit soars towards their distant shore,
To be forgotten thus by kin is agony and more.
How ruthless are the bonds undone that once seemed wrought in steel,
Now spectral chains that bind me to this lonely turning wheel.
But hope, that cruel deceiver, whispers sweetly of return—
A foolish heart still listens close for what it ever yearns.
So here I dwell in shadowed vale where echoes mock my plea,
A specter in forgotten realms where none but ghosts roam free.
In sorrow’s grip, I pen these lines—a testament of pain—
A father lost to time’s abyss where love sought is in vain.
Howdy, Stranger!